Eloise Helen

Eloise was so excited this morning when I told her that her first East Coast friend was born! Jenny and Tim welcomed eight-pound Benjamin Patrick this morning at 9 am ET. We are so excited! I had to cry a little to start the day … first because I was so happy, then because I was sad to be so far. I want to hold him!!

When I explained to Eloise that Benjamin is thousands of miles away, she was also a little sad.

But we are so looking forward to seeing him. We are fantasizing of vacations together down the shore. I’m not totally sure why I’m so fixated on taking Eloise to Ocean City since I’m never going to let her out in the sun, given our family history of melanoma on both sides. Nostalgia, I s’pose.

Last night Eloise got a gum massage from Chris. We’ve graduated from earlobe massages to gum massages: much more functional. She is much happier today after sleeping tremendously well last night, but for the past few days she has pretty much been a huge grump, thanks to the onset of teething.

Eloise had a lot of fun this weekend. We went to a reunion at a pub with folks from our childbirth class. I hate to say it, but she was far and away the cutest baby there. Granted, she had about five weeks on most of the babies, so it wasn’t really a fair comparison. I quickly established myself as The Bad Mother by confessing that I found stay-at-home-momdom quite boring some days. The other moms looked at me like I was crazy and suggested I go to the Baby and Me groups the hospital hosts, as well as take some walks. Of course I do these things! But they soak up a very small proportion of the eleven hours Eloise and I have to ourselves each day. I mean, come on. Maybe they’re not willing to fess up to being bored, or maybe they are really totally fulfilled. But my kid was beefier and smilier than theirs, so whatever. She is a happy little pumpkin as far as I can tell. And smart too. I like these pictures of her “holding forth,” as Allyn describes her monologues.

Sunday we went to a crazy breakfast buffet to celebrate lots of birthdays in the family. Keira experienced the double joy of static electricity and the new kitty toy Grandma gave her. She is so adorable and funny!

Chris took the day off today to celebrate his birthday a day early, so Eloise has a date with Hannah and Robert, and Chris and I have a date with each other. We are going to the movies and to dinner (I hope). I realized how out of the loop I am when we were trying to pick a movie. I hadn’t heard of a single one of them. I guess I’d given up on seeing a movie and stopped reading reviews. She is a little drooly and grumpy these days. Maybe early teething?

Eloise likes to tell us about her day. :)